November 01, 2014

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Why Drink Jaguar Forest Organic Coffee?

Jaguar Forest is more than coffee– it is a call for change, health, and sustainability. Inside every bag is USDA certified organic coffee from Mexico bought at fair-trade prices from a single shade-grown origin.

Jaguar Forest offers coffee from Chiapas and Oaxaca, two of the poorest states in Mexico. Jaguar Forest pays some of the highest prices for this coffee; thus, providing farmers with a sustainable economic alternative and putting an end to cattle ranching, which is destroying the forests of southern Mexico.

Just as Jaguar Forest is for the farmers, it too is for the consumer. Every person who buys Jaguar Forest gets a promise. A promise that your coffee is selected from the highest quality beans in Mexico, that it is 100% free of chemicals and pesticides, that the farmers who grow it are treated fairly, and that it is grown in the shade of the forest, using sustainable growing practices.

Improving life, one cup at a time.

People increasingly want to consume food grown close to where they live. They know that local food is usually fresher, they are concerned about the carbon burned to bring their products to market from long distance, they want to preserve local ecosystems, and they want to support their local economy.

Coffee presents a challenge for locavores—coffee grows best in warm tropical climates at high altitudes. It doesn’t grow in the continental United States.

For those of us living in the continental United States, Mexico is the closest major coffee producer. The distance from the coffee growing regions of Chiapas, Mexico to the U.S. border is about 1300 miles, compared to more than 5,000 miles for coffee grown in Brazil and 9,000 miles for coffee grown in Indonesia.

Coffee can be transported from farm to the U.S. in a few days, and it can be in a coffee drinker’s cup a few days later, allowing for unparalleled freshness.

The carbon used to bring Mexican coffee to market is much less than from any other major growing reason—for the simple reason that it is much closer than coffee produced elsewhere. Also, drinking Mexican shade-grown organic coffee actually reduces carbon in the atmosphere, because it is grown in tropical cloud forests which absorb large amount of carbon. The main economic alternative to coffee farming in the region is cattle ranching, which effectively means burning down the forest and pasturing carbon-belching cattle.

Supporting sustainable agriculture by buying Mexican coffee benefits our local ecosystem. Many migratory bird species of warblers, orioles, and thrushes that breed in the northern United States, winter in the warm cloud forests of Chiapas right where our coffee is grown. By supporting the forest ecosystems of Mexico by buying shade-grown organic coffee, you are preserving habitat for the birds that you might see in your backyard in the summer.There are also economic benefits that return to us by buying Mexican coffee. The U.S. if by far Mexico’s largest trading partner. Much of the money we spend in Mexico comes back to the U.S. in the form of Mexicans buying our products.

Coffee will never be grown in the continental United States, but by buying Mexican coffee, you can obtain many of the benefits of buying locally produced food.